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Good Evans!

Martin's back with some fascinating stats...

Every week he will be here on skysports.com to answer your questions and to offer you statistical gems from what he's seen as he tours the world commentating for Sky Sports.

Sky Sports' voice of football and his back-up team of experts want your queries on all things statistical and historical from the beautiful game.

Evans: yet to concede a free-kick in the league this season

So if you have spotted something from a game or have been stumped by a pub quiz question, simply email skysportsclub@bskyb.com and he will do his best to help.

Tyler's teaser

But as usual we'll kick off with a question for YOU. Click play to see this week's Tyler's Teaser.

Martin's starting stat

It was the case of the "ninth game syndrome" for Chelsea on Sunday. This was the ninth Premier League game of the season and they ended with nine men, just as they did a year ago when their ninth game was away to QPR! For Manchester United it was clearly a better scenario because their ninth game of last season was a 6-1 home defeat to Man City! I saw some of the Chelsea lads after the game and said don't play in the ninth game next season because these things tend to happen in threes!

Robin van Persie has now scored six in his last three appearances at Stamford Bridge and has won all three (two in a 2-1 for Arsenal in 2008, three in a 5-3 for Arsenal in 2011 and one in a 3-2 for Manchester United on Sunday). It's a good ground for him.

Juan Mata made it seven in his last seven appearances and scored past his Spanish Olympic squad team-mate in David De Gea. Meanwhile, David Luiz scored two in the right end in three appearances against Manchester United before Sunday and almost completed a "Rooney-like hat-trick" after scoring a third at the wrong end.

The game marked Sir Alex Ferguson's 50th league match in charge of Manchester United against Chelsea and he evened the count; he now has 16 wins, 16 defeats and 18 draws. He also evened the count in the Premier League with his 13th win to Chelsea's 13. Chelsea have now lost their proud boast as the only team with more wins than defeats against Manchester United in the Premier League.

Manchester United have not conceded a goal later than the 64th minute in all competitions this season, while Chelsea suffered only their second home defeat of the calendar year; it's two in 22 in 2012.

Finally, Mark Clattenburg had never sent off a Chelsea player before Sunday. This was the 19th Chelsea game he'd refereed and his 18th in the Premier League.

NINE AND TIME AGAINI've lost count of the number of times Chelsea have had to play with nine men in the Premier League. We had two sent off against QPR last season and two sent off against Man City a couple of years ago. I'd like to know if any team has been reduced to nine men in the Premier League more than we have? Kris (Chelsea fan)

MARTIN SAYS: According to our friends at Opta, Chelsea have been reduced to nine men in the Premier League on five occasions. The games were as follows:

Sunderland have also been reduced to nine men five times in the Premier League, but that is not the record. Remarkably, Everton have had two men sent off on seven separate occasions in the 21 years of the Premier League. Even more remarkably, three of those occasions have been Merseyside derbies at Goodison Park!

ON PROUD NINEDear Martin. As soon as Torres was sent off on Sunday I knew we were going to lose. Can you tell me if a team has ever won a Premier League game after having two men sent off? I can't imagine very many have even got a draw? Clark (Chelsea fan)

MARTIN SAYS: As mentioned above, we've seen 52 occasions of a team being reduced to nine or fewer men in a Premier League game - however two of those teams DID end up winning the match.

The first team to win a Premier League game with nine men was Manchester City, who won 2-1 at QPR on October 15, 1994. Andy Dibble and Richard Edghill were sent off in the last 20 minutes, but they clung on to the scoreline that had already been established before the red cards.

The only other side to achieve this feat was Leeds, who won 2-1 at Arsenal with nine men on 21 August, 2001 when Danny Mills and Lee Bowyer were sent off in the last 11 minutes. Again, the score was 2-1 before the first red card and Leeds managed to hold on for the win. I did that game.

Of the other 50 teams to have had two (or more) men sent off in a Premier League game, 13 managed to secure a draw and 37 lost.

15 teams to avoid defeat in a Premier League game, despite having two men sent off:

JONNY BE GOODDear Martin, a few of my mates have noticed that Jonny Evans hardly ever concedes free-kicks for Manchester United - and we had to laugh when he got away with the one against Fernando Torres. Can you tell us how many times he's conceded a foul in the Premier League this season and how this compares to other defenders in the league? Mason Jones (Manchester United fan)

MARTIN SAYS: You'll be interested to hear that, according to the boffins at Opta, Jonny Evans has not conceded a single foul in his six Premier League appearances this season. He is the only defender in the league to have played in more than three games without a foul to his name. It's an interesting stat when you consider Sunday's incident alongside the game against Liverpool earlier in the season, when many thought he had fouled Jonjo Shelvy (when Shelvy was sent off) and may have tripped Luis Suarez in the penalty area.

In fact, there are only eight outfield players to have played more than 90 minutes this season without conceding a foul. There are two players who have seen more action than Evans without conceding a free-kick - but both are attacking players. Evans has played 463 minutes, while West Ham winger Matt Jarvis has played 516 minutes without being penalised and Swansea's Danny Graham has played 572 minutes without conceding a foul.

Outfield players to have played 90+ minutes in the Premier League this season without conceding a foul:

HOME RUNSDear Martin, I heard a commentator say that Manchester City have now scored in their last 36 home games, which is an amazing feat. Can you or the boffins at Opta tell me if this is a record in the Premier League? If not, how many more games do they need to score in to break the record? Devon (Man City fan)

MARTIN SAYS: Carlos Tevez's strike against Swansea indeed saw them continue their run of scoring in those consecutive home games. That run stretches back 36 games to a 0-0 draw at home to Birmingham on November 13, 2010 and it has become the joint fifth longest run in Premier League history.

The four teams to have enjoyed longer streaks of scoring in home Premier League games are:

CHELSEA - 38 games (April 23, 2005 to April 28, 2007)

Chelsea drew 0-0 at home to Arsenal on April 20, 2005 and then scored in every home league game they played for more than two years. The run ended with a 0-0 draw at home to Manchester United on May 9, 2007.

MAN UTD - 40 games (November 14, 1998 to December 2, 2000)

Manchester United drew 0-0 at home to Newcastle on November 8, 1998 and then embarked on a 40-game run of scoring in home Premier League fixtures. The run ended when they lost 1-0 at home to Liverpool on December 17, 2000.

ARSENAL - 46 games (April 21, 2001 to November 8, 2003)

Arsenal failed to score in a 3-0 home defeat to Middlesbrough in April 2001, but then scored in every single home league fixture they played in the 2001/02 and 2002/03 seasons. The run ended when they drew 0-0 at home to Fulham on November 30, 2003.

MAN UTD - 53 games (December 15, 2009 to present)

Manchester City's current run is impressive, but it is nothing compared to the record currently being set by their rivals at Manchester United. They have scored in all 53 home league games they've played since December 12, 2009 when they lost 1-0 at home to Aston Villa. Remarkably they have only failed to score in two of their last 98 league games at Old Trafford. The other was a 0-0 draw with Arsenal on May 16, 2009.

THE LONGEST GAMEI have heard that Man City's game with Swansea was the longest match in Premier League history after all the injury time that was added on for the injuries to Michel Vorm and Micah Richards. Can you tell us what was the previous record? Verinder (Arsenal fan)

MARTIN SAYS: According to our friends at Opta, in terms of the total number of minutes played the Manchester City v Swansea match was NOT the longest Premier League match in history. Opta have only been keeping records of match length since the start of the 2006/07 season, but in this period we have seen at least two games that have lasted longer.

The longest during this period was Chelsea's 1-0 win at Reading on October 14, 2006. That game featured a total of 17.42 minutes of additional time following serious injuries to Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech in the first half and his replacement Carlo Cudicini in the second. There were also two red cards and a total of six substitutes were used during the game. Blackburn's 1-1 draw with Birmingham City in April 2011 was also longer than Saturday's game at the Etihad when lengthy added time was played following an injury to Roger Johnson .

The longest Premier League games since the start of 2006/07:

Season

Home

Away

1st Half

2nd Half

Total

2006/07

Reading

Chelsea

5.32

12.10

17.42

2010/2011

Blackburn

Birmingham

8.26

7.36

16.02

2010/11

Man City

Swansea

2.32

12.42

15.14

2011/12

Sunderland

Blackburn

3.18

11.11

14.29

2007/08

Fulham

Middlesbrough

6.49

7.37

14.26

The reason Manchester City's game was talked about as the longest in Premier League history is because it had the most second-half injury time of any game since the start of the 2006/07 season. There was 12.42 minutes of added-on time in the game, making it the first to go past 102-and-a-half minutes on the clock. However, there was only two-and-a-half minutes of injury time in the first half so it is not the longest fixture in total.

The most second-half injury time in a Premier League game since the start of 2006/07:

Comments (1)

Quinson Gumbs (Manchester City fan) says...

Martin I just started reading your column a couple weeks ago but if you will, I have a question about the Manchester derbies in the premier league last season. Was ManCity the first team to win both games in a single season over the previous season's champion and then go on to win the prem? also, were Manchester United the only champions to have no shots on target in a single game? My second question relates to the derby in April